Dave Ball, one half of the groundbreaking 1980s electronic music band Soft Cell, has died at the age of 66.
Together with vocalist Marc Almond, the pair achieved a worldwide hit with their version of Gloria Jones' the classic track Tainted Love in the mid-80s, and their debut album their initial full-length release is considered a seminal work of synth-pop.
He later formed the pioneering techno group The Grid, who secured chart success with their 1994 single the hit Swamp Thing.
Ball passed away calmly in his rest at his residence in London on October 22, just weeks after performing a headline show with Soft Cell at the Rewind Festival in the Thames-side town.
Health Struggles
At that show, Ball performed in a wheelchair, as he had for the last two years, following a spate of ill-health.
"I managed to damage myself quite a bit," he stated in 2023. "I broke lower vertebrae in my back and cracked about five ribs and broke my arm."
After contracting a lung infection and suffering from blood poisoning, he was put in an induced coma and stayed in hospital for half a year.
Nevertheless, he had been in "high spirits mentally" during the warmer months, as he worked on a new album with Almond, titled Danceteria, which is set for release in the coming year.
"He was concentrated and very pleased with the latest project that we actually completed only a few days ago," said the vocalist in a tribute.
"It's truly heartbreaking as next year was completely planned to be such an positive year for him, and I take some solace from the fact that he heard the finished record and believed that it was a great piece of work."
Heartfelt Messages
Almond described his collaborator as "a wonderfully brilliant creative mastermind", adding: "He was the heart and soul of Soft Cell and I'm extremely pleased of our legacy.
"Many thanks Dave for being an significant part of my life and for the music you created with me. I couldn't be where I am without your influence."
His Grid bandmate from The Grid, also paid tribute, remembering Ball's "endless laughter" and "steadfast support".
"Forming a duo with someone is different from joining a group, the connection is very tight," he continued.
"That was the case with us. We went through so many remarkable, incredible, memorable experiences together. Thank you, Dave."
Formative Years
Born into a one-parent family in the city of Chester in 1959, Ball was given up for adoption when he was a year and a half old.
He was raised in Blackpool with his new family his caregivers, who altered his first name from his birth name to David, together with his sibling his sister, who was also adopted.
He encountered Almond at an art college in the late 70s, where they were both learning fine arts. Inspired by a mutual passion of a music genre, they established Soft Cell the very year, and quickly produced an extended play.
Musical Partnership
The pair were an unusual combination: Ball was the quiet musician, bent over his synthesizer, while Almond was a charismatic showman, all sparkle and eye-liner; but they attained a rare creative synergy.
Ball had cultivated a interest with synthesizers after viewing the band Kraftwerk appear on a television program Tomorrow's World, and started to marry dark electronica to the catchy tunes Almond was writing.
Tainted Love became the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling song of the early 80s, selling millions of units worldwide. Together with hits by Gary Numan, Human League and electronic acts, it contributed to paved the path for the electronic music style of the 1980s.
The song was also included on their full-length debut, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which produced two further top five hits: Bedsitter and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.
They continued the album up with the stand-alone single, Torch, which reached at the second position in 1982.
Career Highlights
Success had its upsides. "I enjoyed being able to afford my first home, having money and travelling, which might seem like a Miss World," Ball not long ago told with a music magazine.
But it also caused problems. "Newfound wealth meant we could purchase newfound drugs to alleviate the monotony" of press appearances and TV performances, Ball said.
"I know that's a cliché, but it's a truism for a good reason, because it works for so many musicians."
During the party-filled existence, the duo were also growing distant, but they managed to create a second classic album - the unconventional, tense and fittingly named The Art Of Falling Apart.
They released one more album, their 1984 release This Last Night In Sodom, before dissolving the group to concentrate on other projects.
Almond went on to have a prosperous individual path, including the chart-topping single Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart; while Ball formed The Grid, who mixed acid house with ambient pop over a long-lasting partnership.
Later Work and Comebacks
Soft Cell reunited in the early 2000s, producing the charting record Cruelty Without Beauty.
Following another break, they reappeared in recent years, releasing the new tracks Northern Lights and Guilty (Cos I Say You Are) before staging what was intended to be a farewell show at the O2 Arena on September 30, that year.
Yet, they remained together, recording their fifth album, Happiness Not Included, during the 2020 Covid lockdown.
Ball lately characterized the duo's new album as a tribute to the NYC nightlife they frequented while making their first two albums.
He added that his time in medical care had influenced the band's sound.
"I experienced unusual memories when I was in and out of the hospital because I was on morphine," he told a music magazine.
"Our latest tracks are a electronic representation of the noises in my mind from that time.
"Simultaneously, it's about the times me and Marc got up to in the 80s."
The last versions were completed only a short time before Ball died. It is due for release in the spring of 2026.
